Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest height

But the philanthropic heights of wealth do not like this consultancy (or ‘exercise in kite-flying’ when ideas are floated without firm commitment behind them) into tax avoidance announced in the last Budget.  Ed Miliband had a good line when he said that the government has given a tax break to the richest one per cent, except for those who want to give to charity.  Of course, that’s not what the Government had intended but, as like so many things in the last month, it has handled it as adroitly has a North Korean rocket launch.  A crescendo is staring to build with UNICEF last week and now the female actor Cate Blanchett weighing in.  By curbing large philanthropic donations to charities, such as those which help the arts (hence Blanchett’s intervention), it is damaging the efforts of those struggling to plug the gap that is left by public spending cuts, never mind fostering a ‘big society’.  It is proving as dangerous as the kite-fighting that takes place in the skies above the Trans-Indus region, with the debris of stricken, spiked war-toys raining down on the innocent.  Expect this kite to be ‘re-engineered’ i.e. grounded soon.